See also variometers and the Bill Bennett ‘s Delta Wing Kites and Gliders related topics menu.
Incidentally, the dark objects on the left of the base tube (control bar) are ‘bar mitts.’ An advantage they have compared to gloves is that, in flight, the pilot can pull a hand out to operate the switches on the variometer or even change its batteries without having to deal with a loose glove. (See Hang gliding 1977.) By 1977 most competition pilots and those attempting records flew prone, but Katz flew in a Bennett seat harness. In July 1977, the first flight of more than 100 miles in a hang glider took place when Jerry Katz covered 103 miles in the Owens valley, California, for an official world record. Later versions of the Skyhook seat harness were padded for increased comfort. The author flying a Skyhook IIIA at the British championship competition at Mere in Wiltshire, England, in August 1975 The Skyhook (UK) harness incorporated a solid flat wooden seat that was not only reasonably comfortable in flight, it also afforded some protection to the base of the pilot’s spine in the event of a heavy landing. See also the Waspair of Surrey, England, related topics menu.
(See Hang gliding 1974 part 2.) A solid seat, usually made of thick plywood, was a great improvement when flying upright. In 1974 British champion Brian Wood set a UK endurance record of more than eight hours using such a harness, but his legs were numb and he was unable to stand for a while after he landed. Waspair upright webbing harness of 1974Ĭompletely flexible webbing parachute style upright harnesses were tried in the mid 1970s, but they inhibited circulation to the pilot’s legs. See Lilienthal, Pilcher, and Chanute in Earliest hang gliders. That is possibly the first record of something like the upright or seat harness commonly used with standard Rogallo type hang gliders of the 1970s. While John Dickenson of Australia is credited with being first with the combination of a triangular control frame and swing seat harness in 1965 (see Flex-wings in Earliest hang gliders) Octave Chanute’s 1897 patent of a hang glider based on Otto Lilienthal’s glider design shows a swing seat arrangement. See Copyright of early hang gliding photos. Some images on this page are artistic derivations of contemporary photos. Nowadays, such problems have been largely ironed out, but we are still working on a completely fail safe method of attaching the pilot to the harness and attaching the harness to the airframe. The history of hang glider harness design includes instances of serious injury resulting from designers not paying enough attention to such factors. For example, it should be difficult or impossible to get into a harness in such a way that you can fall out or get into a position where control of the glider is compromised. Like the airframe and sail, harness design is critical to the functioning of the flying machine. This page consists of the following main sections, each corresponding to one of the basic types of hang glider harnesses: Home (contents) → Harnesses Harnesses British rigid hang glider champion Tim King having unzipped his pod prone harness on approach to landing in 2020
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